Here I am, 3:30 am, listening to her cry. She's been up since 2am, so now of course, her day is totally ruined.
First, I let her babble, thinking she would go back to sleep since it was complete darkness in her room. After listening to that over the monitor for 20 minutes, I tried giving her the pacifier in the dark (no easy task, I'm glad the Nuk has contours).
She quieted, but then she started bicycling out of her swaddle. Kick, kick, kick. That's usually her signal that she either has to pee, or has already peed. Okay, I changed her diaper as quietly, dimly-lit, and least-stimulating as I could, reswaddled, and back down.
This time her cry was louder. Aw, crap. It's her hunger cry. Okay, we'll do a dimly lit feed.
Well, that went to crap, because she threw it all back up on me. Apparently there aren't any milk supply issues at 3am. I quickly changed her outfit and swaddle blanket and laid her back down, not without some protest from her. But it's now three minutes since I laid her back down, and she's quiet. I, however, am soaked with about four ounces of milk and saliva. Gross.
Lessons learned:
-Try putting a larger-size diaper on her for nighttime. We don't gDiaper at night because we don't want to risk absorbency/leak issues. I know she's capable of sleeping an 8-hour stretch, so if the diaper is the culprit, going up a size larger than what she'd wear during the day may help. I'm buying some size 2 dipes tomorrow.
-Don't offer both sides if she has a middle of the night feeding. Too much for one little tummy.
-Thermal swaddle at night, Muslin swaddle during the day. She (and her diaper) gets cool -not chilled, just cool- at night in the lightweight muslin.
-Expect crappy nighttime sleep if she had crappy daytime naps.
-Accept that growth spurts and "off" days happen.
-Have an extra pair of PJs in the guest bedroom.
Ugh. Hope y'all are sleeping better than I am. Serenity now!
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